Applied behavior analysis (ABA) is the science of applying experimentally derived principles of behaviorism to modify behavior. ABA takes what we know about behavior and uses it to bring about changes of the behavior (frequency, topography, latency, speed, fluency). The behavior is analyzed utilizing behavior assessment to determine the functional relationship of the behavior within the environment.

CSS stands for Contingent Skin Shock, a tool used in ABA, especially on children. They use Cattle-prods on them.

The Rotenberg Center is the only facility in the country that disciplines students by shocking them, a form of punishment not inflicted on serial killers or child molesters or any of the 2.2 million inmates now incarcerated in U.S. jails and prisons. Over its 36-year history, six children have died in its care, prompting numerous lawsuits and government investigations. Last year, New York state investigators filed a blistering report that made the place sound like a high school version of Abu Ghraib. Yet the program continues to thrive—in large part because no one except desperate parents, and a few state legislators, seems to care about what happens to the hundreds of kids who pass through its gates.

* Staff shock kids for "nagging, swearing, and failing to maintain a neat appearance" and once threatened to shock a girl who sneezed and then asked for a tissue. * Some students must "earn" meals by not displaying certain behaviors. Otherwise they are "made to throw a predetermined caloric portion of their food into the garbage." * When students enter and leave the school each day, "almost all" are wearing some type of restraints, such as handcuffs or leg shackles. * "Students may be restrained"—on a four-point restraint board or chair—"for extensive periods of time (e.g. hours or intermittently for days)." * Some students are shocked while strapped to the restraint board. * A "majority" of employees "serving as classroom teachers" are "not certified teachers." * Rotenberg's marketing reps bestow presents on prospective families—"e.g. a gift bag for the family, basketball for the student." * Although the center has described its shock device as "approved" by the fda in its promotional materials, it "has not been approved." * The facility collects "comprehensive data" on behaviors it seeks to eliminate, but "there was no evidence of the collection of data on replacement or positive behaviors." * The facility makes no assessment of the "possible collateral effects of punishment such as depression, anxiety, and/or social withdrawal."

Israel denounced the investigators as "biased" and compiled a counter-report nearly three times the length of the original. He denied that residents go hungry, and clarified that only 20 percent of them are restrained on their way to and from school. And to the charge that shocks might hurt students' psychological well-being? "There are no negative side effects of the ged to consider," he wrote.

Of course some people can go too far with such techniques. Especially if they're sexual sadists.

Long before Oliver Braman admitted using a cattle prod to abuse two teen sons and then killed 9-year-old son Nicholas and his wife, a young woman and her brother tried to warn police the man was a monster.

Shelly Lewis, a former neighbor of Braman, sat down with a state police trooper for 90 minutes in June 2006 to tell how she had been raped by the man starting when she was 14, county records confirm. Shelly's brother Nick drove his 21-year-old sister to meet with police, concerned for her and for Braman's sons.

Both say they also informed police and state child protection workers that Braman used a cattle prod on his teen boys for discipline, though they believe those complaints were not acted on. Child welfare workers will not comment.

All in accordance with Biblical Principles until then.

I uncovered the lid on this sewer by accident. I was looking to see of there was any lonh term follow-up of the children that Child Psychologist Dr George Rekers - he of the Rentboy Scandal - had "treated" in accordance with Biblical Principles. Welts, Bruises fine - only permanent disfigurement and serious injury is forbidden in his Biblical "Operant Conditioning".

That led me to this article - THE MISBEHAVIOUR OF BEHAVIOURISTS Ethical Challenges to the Autism-ABA Industry - where ABA techniques used at UCLA in the 70's were described.

6. Dr Rekers and his principles

The UCLA project described above was the Feminine Boy Project. Its immediate goal was to replace feminine behaviours (e.g., "maternal nurturance" and playing with girls) with masculine behaviours (e.g., playing with a toy submachine gun and rough-housing with boys) in gender-role-deviant young boys. Its workhorse was Dr Lovaas' student, the young researcher George A. Rekers. And prominent among its long-term goals was preventing homosexuality.

The role of societal intolerance in choosing target behaviours was mentioned in one of the Rekers/Lovaas studies. The authors concluded that it is more realistic to change those hurt by intolerance than to change the intolerant behaviours of society. This position is known to be short-sighted and to extrapolate badly, as many dissenters noticed.

In fact, ethics-based dissent, including from the late ABA pioneer (and defender of Dr Lovaas' work in autism) Donald M. Baer, dominated the considerable criticism generated by this project. Everyone noticed that a project presuming to transform the nature of unconsenting clients through behaviour interventions must be challenged as to its ethics. Criticisms of the FBP's choice of good-male/bad-female behaviours were plentiful. The participation of interested parties, such as transsexuals, homosexuals, transvestites, and feminists was argued to be essential in project decision-making. The impoverishment of society through the eradication of a variety of behaviours and what those possessing them may contribute was mentioned. The assumption that non-heterosexuals are dysfunctional and miserable as adolescents and adults was severely questioned.

Critics barely touched on the issue of aversives, and did not split hairs over data points; instead they highlighted the problem of to whom therapists are responsible. Who do they serve: the client, or the client's parents, or society and its values, or themselves and their own values?

Dr Rekers, Dr Lovaas, and some others responded with their own ethics: "Once parents and professionals have concluded that a boy has a gender disturbance, a therapist cannot ethically refuse to treat the child." Dr Rekers, with two others, added in another defence: "If a parent brings a child to a psychologist and asks that the possibility of homosexual development be prevented, is this not an ethically and professionally proper goal for the psychologist?" Defending his work with Dr Lovaas, Dr Rekers also used the rationales that homosexual behaviour was (in California, at the time) illegal, and that he shared the same Christian values as the parents involved.

This and Dr Rekers' great volume of similar work revealed that his principles were fundamentalist, rather than scientific. He objected to homosexuality being removed from the DSM, and proposed it be returned there. He expressed incredulity and indignation that those having the pathology of homosexuality had any say in its classification and treatment.

The two FBP successes reported in Rekers/Lovaas case studies were found to be bisexual on follow-up. One of these successes had attempted suicide at age 18, after his first homosexual encounter.

This study demonstrated reinforcement control over pronounced feminine behaviors in a male child who had been psychologically evaluated as manifesting “childhood cross-gender identity”. The clinical history of the subject paralleled the retrospective reports of adult transsexuals, including (a) cross-gender clothing preferences, (b) actual or imaginal use of cosmetic articles, (c) feminine behavior mannerisms, (d) aversion to masculine activities, coupled with preference for girl playmates and feminine activities, (e) preference for female role, (f) feminine voice inflection and predominantly feminine content in speech, and (g) verbal statements about the desire or preference to be a girl. The subject was treated sequentially in the clinic and home environments by his mother, trained to be his therapist. The mother was taught to reinforce masculine behaviors and to extinguish feminine behaviors, by using social reinforcement in the clinic and a token reinforcement procedure in the home. During this treatment, his feminine behaviors sharply decreased and masculine behavior increased. The treatment effects were found to be largely response-specific and stimulus-specific; consequently, it was necessary to strengthen more than one masculine behavior and weaken several feminine behaviors, in both clinic and home settings. A multiple-baseline intrasubject design was used to ensure both replication and identification of relevant treatment variables. Follow-up data three years after the treatment began suggests that the boy's sex-typed behaviors have become normalized. This study suggests a preliminary step toward correcting pathological sex-role development in boys, which may provide a basis for the primary prevention of adult transsexualism or similar adult sex-role deviation.

Another view - that of the victim - sorry, case - is over at The Autism Crisis, under ABA Success Stories. Or rather, "Success" stories.

Gender disturbed children desperately need treatment.

This quote is from Rekers, Bentler, Rosen & Lovaas (1977). It concludes one of multiple peer-reviewed articles authored by prominent researchers, defending a highly successful early intensive ABA-based treatment (see also Rekers, 1977; Rosen, Rekers & Bentler, 1978; Rekers, Rosen, Lovaas & Bentler, 1978). This treatment was part of the UCLA Feminine Boy Project, which for some time ran concurrently with the UCLA Young Autism Project. Its unprecendented success in treating what was considered to be an intractable pathology was reported by NIH-funded UCLA researchers in peer-reviewed journals (Rekers & Lovaas, 1974; Rekers, Lovaas & Low, 1974). One of the stated purposes of this treatment was to "cure" or "prevent" homosexuality.

The UCLA researchers repeatedly wrote that the young boys targeted by their early intensive ABA-based treatment suffered terribly and were in pain. At all possible levels (physical, emotional, economic, social, etc.), their prognosis was described as "extremely poor" with a high risk of criminal, anti-social and self-destructive behaviour. Their future was one of "numerous crippling difficulties" and "pain, misery and despair" (all quotes from Rekers et al., 1977).

Then there were the parents of these reportedly severely disordered children, parents whose needs, values and goals were considered paramount. Therefore, according to the UCLA researchers, there was a "moral and ethical obligation" to intervene and provide a treatment which had been demonstrated to be effective. The fundamental purpose of this behavior analytic treatment was, they wrote,

to help children whose present and future is so filled with hardship that it would be clearly unethical not to render them professional help.(Rekers et al., 1977)

They were acting out of the purest motives - as is Dr Kenneth Zucker today. And being fair, they didn't use CSS on the children. Unlike the unfortunate Autistic kids in similar programs then - and, as I've found out, today.

Yes, it still happens. Just not to Trans kids, at least, not outside the Rotenberg centre. Dr Zucker's ABA therapy at CAMH in Canada may lead to them having anxiety attacks when they see the colour pink, but he'd be as horrified as I was at the thought of using cattle-prods - sorry, CSS - on children. He's not a monster. In light of Dr Rekers recent escapades though... he's a very different case.

We affirm that the Bible is the authoritative source of knowledge for psychology and counseling as in all other areas of life. We deny that any other source of knowledge is equally authoritative with the Bible for psychology and counseling.

2. Applicability

We affirm that the subject matter of counseling is precisely the same as that of the Bible and, therefore, the Bible completely equips us with the theory and principles of counseling. We deny that the Bible is inadequate for the theory and practice of counseling....6. Scientific Method

We affirm that the scientific method is useful in carrying out the creation mandate of Genesis 1:28 to subdue and have dominion over creation when the investigators have Biblical presuppositions and when the Bible does not directly give us the answers we seek; that the use of the scientific method is entirely controlled by the presuppositions of the investigators and therefore the results are a pronouncement of faith rather than of scientific fact; and that the faith nature of the results of scientific investigation is evidenced by the investigators' proselytizing intent, that is, their attempt to transform man into their idea of what man should be. We deny that the scientific method can ever be applied in psychology without its being thoroughly determined by the presuppositions of the investigators.

Post-Modernist Fundies, no less. You don't use Science to investigate an objective reality: you only use Science to bolster your prejudices. That's the Scientific Method.

14. Root Causes of Personal Problems

We affirm that all personal problems have their roots in the sin of Adam and Eve; that non-organic (and even many organic) problems are immediately affected by personal selfishness and rebellion against God and His Law, and that man's restraint against worse sin is due primarily to God's common grace and secondarily to the governing structures of conscience, family, state, and society. We deny that these problems may be explained entirely on any other basis; that men are basically "good" (moral); and that any man has within his own knowledge and energy all that he needs to solve his problems.

15. Guilt

We affirm that every person incurs true guilt whenever he violates a law of God (whether or not the act was intentional or the person was aware of the law that he violated), and even whenever he violates a standard that he wrongly believes to be required by God (Romans 14:23). We deny that true guilt is incurred only when a person consciously violates a law of God.

This goes so much against my own personal beliefs that I cannot leave this unremarked. I believe that people are basically good - albeit with varying degrees of imperfection. Few set out to be consciously evil. And that intent is vital in defining guilt, else we'd be paralysed into inactivity because whatever we do might accidentally be wrong. Moreover, it's bacteria that cause infections, not some past blood-guilt. I have no need for an invisible Sky-Policeman to punish me for infractions, because I wish to do good for its own sake. It's only the few who are truly evil, who cannot imagine anyone else not being truly evil, that require threats of eternal punishment.

22. Mental Illness

We affirm that the term "mental illness" should be restricted to those problems that manifest a clear physical or physiologic origin or cause and that affect the thinking of man. We deny that the term "mental illness" should be applied to problems that clearly originate in the non-physical mind and have been clearly designated by the Bible as sins--e.g., homosexuality and "alcoholism," the latter Biblically defined as drunkenness.

23. Angels and Demons

We affirm that creatures who have only a spiritual dimension exist, that some serve God faithfully (angels) and others are in active rebellion against God (demons), and that the latter may possess unregenerate persons and oppress or influence regenerate persons. We deny that the Christian counselor may neglect the reality of demons, and that personal problems, organic or non-organic, are never the result of the influence of or possession by demons.

So when it suits them, Homosexuality is an illness in need of cure. And when not... it's a sin. One that by pretending it's a mental illness, they can punish, and punish, and punish, and punish, and torture with extreme cruelty, and all without guilt or shame. They have divine sanction for this "loving" torture, as did Torquemada.

24. Love and Situational Ethics

We affirm that love is the self-sacrifice of one person for another, best exemplified by the love of God through Jesus Christ, and that while love goes beyond the Law, it must always be consistent with and directed by Biblical Law and principle. We deny that love is the same as mercy and kindness, and that love is determined by situations without specific direction by Biblical Law and principle.

They hate themselves, you see. The sin within them. They're not conscienceless. They just prefer to whip and scourge their sins from others, taking an unholy joy in it. And to do so, they must live in a world of darkness, inhabited by evil spirits and demons, unfettered by rationality or fact.

A world where they can hire rentboys to massage their genitals and anal regions without being at all gay. Enjoying the delicious thrill of control, over themselves and others. Breaking up families, torturing children with scarcely hidden delight, and all in God's Holy Name.

Rekers' views on family life were the focus of a major controversy in Florida in 2002 when then-governor Jeb Bush appointed Jerry Regier to the post of head of the Florida Department of Children and Families with responsibility for child welfare. Shortly after the announcement of Regier's appointment, it was disclosed that in 1989 the California-based Coalition on Revival had published a fundamentalist tract titled The Christian World View of the Family under the names of Regier and Rekers, which condemned working mothers as being in "bondage" and argued that the government should have no right to place children in protective custody except in cases of extreme abuse or neglect. The tract's authors also "affirm that Biblical spanking may cause temporary and superficial bruises or welts that do not constitute child abuse" and "deny that the Bible countenances any other definition of the family, such as the sharing of a household by homosexual partners, and that society's laws should be modified in any way to broaden the definition of family."[22] The tract was condemned by Democrats; Bush told the media that Regier "doesn't share those extreme views."[23] Regier survived the controversy and served as DCF head from 2002 to the end of Jeb Bush's term in 2007.

TALLAHASSEE - The man named Thursday by Gov. Jeb Bush to head Florida's notoriously inept child welfare agency is an evangelical Christian who views spanking that causes ''bruises or welts'' as acceptable punishment.

The revelation did not come to Bush's attention until hours after the governor introduced Jerry Regier, a former Oklahoma Cabinet secretary and aide to Bush's father, as the new chief of the state's Department of Children and Families.

Regier, 57, was named less than 48 hours after the resignation of DCF Secretary Kathleen A. Kearney. He takes over an agency that has been embroiled in scandal since 5-year-old Rilya Wilson disappeared.

In a 1989 essay entitled The Christian World View of the Family, Regier and co-author George Rekers railed against abortion and gay couples forming families, and emphasized that husbands have ``final say in any family dispute.''

And the essay declares that ''biblical spanking'' that leads to ``temporary and superficial bruises or welts do not constitute child abuse.''

The essay also said Christians should not marry non-Christians, that divorce is acceptable only when there is adultery or desertion and that wives should view working outside the home as ''bondage.'' The ''radical feminist movement,'' the essay adds, ``has damaged the morale of many women and convinced men to relinquish their biblical authority in the home.'' ...But Regier's essay raises questions about the suggestion that he would keep beliefs and government duties separate.

He and Rekers at one point urge Christians to take ``whatever actions we can, within our biblical and constitutional limits, to realign county, state, and federal legislation regarding family issues in order to make it conform to the Bible's view of reality and morality.''

It's not enough that they revel in their own private sewer. Their need for control makes them want to re-make society in their own image. And they have powerful friends. From the Miami Herald again:

Anti-gay psychologist George Rekers charged Florida $300 an hour to testify as an expert witness in a trial defending Florida’s ban on gay people adopting. The state planned to cap Rekers' fee at $60,900 -- but paid him $120,693 after he exceeded his contracted hours.

"It is not unusual for estimated costs to require adjustment during the course of trial preparation," said Sandi Copes, communications director for the Florida Attorney General's Office.

Copes said the extra hours were not agreed to in writing, but "merely by discussion."

"A total of 402.31 hours was submitted for payment by invoice attached. Of the 402.31 hours, 203 was paid by Direct Order," according to a 2009 state settlement agreement. ‘‘We accept responsibility for not obtaining a written document for the 199.31 remaining hours. However, the monies are legally due."

Attorney General Bill McCollum personally requested that the state’s Department of Children & Families hire Rekers, whose national reputation shattered last week after he vacationed for two weeks in Europe with a gay male escort from Miami he met through Rentboy.com....In 2007, McCollum wrote to then-DCF Secretary Bob Butterworth, "Our attorneys handling this case have searched long and hard for other expert witnesses with comparable expertise to Dr. Rekers and have been unable to identify any who would be available for this case."

I can believe that. It would be difficult finding any Psychologist with Dr Rekers eccentric views. Views that were needed to bolster an inhuman law.

A 2008 Florida purchase requisition states that no payment to Rekers should exceed $60,900.

Florida paid Rekers $60,900 in 2007 and $59,793 in 2009 for his testimony in the case of Frank Gill, a gay foster parent seeking to adopt two young brothers. Florida is the only state that bans all gay people from adopting.

Among Rekers' charges to the state of Florida:

• $27,000 (90 hours) to "evaluate and critique'' new research.

• $5,400 (18 hours) to meet with staff at the Attorney General's Office to prepare for deposition.

"Rekers is part of a small cadre of bogus pseudo scientists that charge these exorbitant fees to peddle information they know has been discredited time and time again. And people like McCollum will pay top dollar for it."

Rekers testimony was to parrot the notes he'd used in Arkansas. There was no "new research" to critique. But such petty dishonesty pales into insignificance before his career of professional sadism.

By now, I suspect many readers of this article will be thinking along the lines of some ABA applied to Dr Rekers. "Poetic Justice", with significant amounts of "Conditional Skin Shock" using multiple cattle-prods. Ostensibly yo prevent socially undesirable behaviour - that's the excuse - but really out of a sense of righteous anger and a bloody thirst for red revenge. The thought had certainly crossed my mind.

But... then how would I be different from him? It was his self-righteousness, his blindness to his own evil, that allowed him to do this. How is my self-righteousness any different? More Just perhaps. But compared with Mercy, "Justice" is over-rated.

I just want some light on this, to expose this filth and cleanse it through the harsh and baleful glare of publicity. I want some professional journalist, not a blogger on the other side of the planet, to connect the dots and put the story together. One who'll get a Pulitzer for it, whether or not he(or she) mentions this article in an obscure footnote. I want the torture of children to stop, and the influence of these self-loathing Fundies and Mengeleresque "Psychologists" with their fondness for CSS to vanish, yes, and the torture of Autistic Kids to stop too, that's another issue.

Once Dr Rekers is neutralised, and the harm he's done exposed and healed as much as it may be.... I have difficulty caring what happens to him. He can go to Hell, or he can spend his remaining days with firm-bodied young adult rentboys to give him erotic massages, I don't honestly give a damn. Just so long as the children are safe from him.

There are a number of behaviour modification programmes in the US. Of the ones that I've come across during my years of working with Youth Rights organizations, the majority use punishment, usually corporeal and frequently involving pain, in order to effect the change they want.

The worst offenders have been in Utah, Wyoming, and Florida.

But only the Florida ones are state owned-and-operated.

Unfortunately, the two organizations I worked directly with regarding Behaviour Modification Centres have both shut their doors due to threats of violence from some of the people who make money off the tormenting of kids.

NYRA (National Youth Rights Association, can be found at www.youthrights.org) has done a bit, but doesn't have a specialist to work directly on the problem, and they're a bit afraid to assign one, given past problems with some of the employees of the responsible corporations.

One of the worst offenders has been WWASPS - they've run schools across the country, most of their "teachers" are uneducated (in some cases not having a high school diploma), and their methods of discipline range from tying a child to a cement floor and leaving them there for two days all the way to forced marches through the desert for a week with sub-sustenance levels of food & water.

Sadly a lot of the companies that ran these schools simply left the US and set up shop in places like Jamaica (Tranquility Bay) when state laws tightened. The ones that didn't leave the country simply reformed under a different corporate name and worked between the laws, so they're never brought to justice (See: Provo Canyon).

Somehow they've been able to fight off the lawsuits filed against them, usually by dumping paperwork on the plaintiff by the truck-load. And they're still continuing to perpetrate their evils against children.

I don't believe in good or evil, but for some things there can be no compassion or mercy. Torturing children is one of those things. In a just world, he would be dragged into the street and burned alive.

In this world, however, probably the best we're going to get is the ruination of his career and credibility, which is something I suppose.

Unfortunately, there are lots more people who put an academic frock on beating, humiliating and traumatizing, and sometimes killing, their children to smash them into their warped and twisted idea about what they should be.

They love the Nuclear Family so much because in that environment the abuse can just go on and on, for years, with the child (and often wife) having no recourse and no escape. It makes me sick to my stomach.

Isn't it strange that you have to wait until you're eighteen before you're entitled to protection from violence?

I'm always amazed by the arguments sadists employ in order to justify their practices. I was boggling almost continually at the claims found in "The Christian World View of Psychology and Counseling", but was especially struck by the following:

"37. Suffering

We affirm that Christians commonly experience trials and temptations (sometimes severe or resulting from Satan's action), which God uses to promote His glory and increase the holiness of the one involved (Romans 8:28; 1 Corinthians 10:13; James 1:2-4). We deny that Christians may expect a life free of trials and temptations; that Satan is ever outside of God's control; and that counseling that ignores this truth is Biblical at its core."

Translation: God is a sadistic, ego-obsessed mofo, and is not content to wait for you to screw up, but sets his agent, Satan, to the task of setting traps and lures to tempt you into violating His Laws--of which we are the authoritative interpreters--so he can have an adequate excuse to condemn you to roast forever in the Pits of Hell.

Subtext: We're very close to him, and when we subject you to trials and tribulations you can rest assured we're doing Godly work intended to increase your holiness.

Gosh... the things one can accomplish with quote-mining... James 1:13: "1:13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man."

And I don't care what happens to Israel - as long as he no longer has any power over any kid ever again.

P.S. ABA without "aversives" *shiver* isn't always good either. It can mean getting communicating and ways of coping trained out (which aren't harming anyone) so that when the kids do things that are hard for them they have less resources to draw on. And not getting treated as human numbs out the parts of you that are human.

Green in turn worked with Professor John Money at John Hopkins and can be seen on utube vigorously defending Money's failed sex reassignment of David Reimer, the normal twin boy he attempted to turn into a girl with surgery and hormones.

Until recently, both Green and Money were both quoted on the website of the North American Man/Boy Love association, a group which actively promotes the sexual abuse of little boys by men. Green was saying that "intergenerational sex" is not always "harmful".

There is an interesting comment on the following blog about the links between these people: Comment 9.

http://www.truthwinsout.org/blog/2010/05/8559/

It is a despicable, evil attitude to kids which says it is ok for adults to have sex with them, change their sex or do behavior modification - all without the consent of the victim

Nowhere in scripture does it say to torture your children into submission, never does any Biblical character correct a child with violence, and at no point does Christ or any of the "authoritative" writers on Christ and his teachings advocate violence.

These people throw in very difficult and controversial fundamentalist teachings to soften their selected target audience for a lie.

About Me

Actually, I am a Rocket Scientist.
Also hormonally odd (my blood has 46xy chromosomes anyway) and for most of my life, I looked male, and lived as one, trying to be the best Man a Gal could be. Anyway, in May 2005 that started changing naturally for reasons still unclear, and I'm now Zoe, not Alan : happier and more relaxed not to have to pretend any more.
UPDATE - reason now identified as the 3BHSD form of CAH.

Reviews

This blog, written by a rocket scientist, is a fascinating collection of information, both personal and scientific, regarding intersex, transsexualism and related psychosocial and psychosexual issues....It is erudite and heartfelt. Just read the posts about the passport issue. You won't know whether to laugh, weep or crawl into a ball and rock gently in a corner - an amazing person.- David---The reason I so appreciate bright, perceptive people - as opposed to ideologues whose intelligence does little to illuminate - is that they manage to both instruct and learn with a certain grace. Among such rarities in the transblogosphere is Zoe, whose direct speech and clear humanity always make her worth reading, even if one doesn’t always agree with her every conclusion.- Val---The following is a request for permission to archive your A.E.Brain blog site which we have wanted to do for several years...The Library has traditionally collected items in print, but it is also committed to preserving electronic publications of lasting cultural value....Since (1996) we have been identifying online publications and archiving those that we consider have national significance....We would like to include A.E.Brain blog site in the PANDORA Archive...-Australian National Library